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Friday, January 16, 2015

Is Independence Possible? Belarusian Orthodox Church Seeks More Independence from Russia

Belarusian Orthodox circles call it the beginning of a new era, as
Metropolitan Pavel, its new leader who recently moved from Russia to
Belarus, stated he would ask the Moscow Patriarchate to grant the
Belarusian Orthodox Church self-governing status.

Currently, the Belarusian Orthodox Сhurch constitutes a part of the
Moscow Patriarchate and lacks the authority to deal even with minor
issues without Moscow's consent.

The Belarusian authorities and the clergy support the idea because
they want to limit Russian influence. The Moscow Patriarchate will
likely ignore the request from Belarus, but it may not last forever.

The First Timid Step to Independence

The war in Ukraine has intensified the desire of the authorities to
control those institutions that are dependent on other states. Though
Belarus remains a largely atheistic country, the Belarusian Orthodox
Church enjoys great credibility among Belarusians.

According to the Independent Institute of Socio-Economic and
Political Studies, the Belarusian Orthodox Church is the most trusted
institution in the country, with 63% of Belarusians stating they trust
it.
On 16 December priests from Minsk applauded during Metropolitan Pavel's statement who said that he would seek self-governing status for the Belarusian Orthodox Church.

Pavel’s
initiative brought joy for the Belarusian clergy, but not empire-minded
Russians. A popular Russian news site Regnum accused Belarus of moving
towards autocephaly (i.e. complete separation from the Russian Orthodox
Church).
The Russian Orthodox sites mostly condemned the statement of the
Belarusian Metropolitan, and the Moscow Patriarchate keeps silence. For
Russians, who feel like they live amongst their enemies, Pavel’s
statement was akin to a knife in the back.

The wishes of the Belarusian Orthodox Church are no doubt reasonable.The Belarusian Orthodox Church has a very weak position in the Orthodox world and remains the only Exarchate,
a mere province of the Russian Orthodox Church outside of Russia. The
Belarusian Orthodox Church unites all of the dioceses in Belarus, but
lacks any power over them and is unable to make decisions on its own.

Metropolitan Pavel got his job
without so much as a discussion about his candidacy with the Belarusian
clergy, orthodox Christians or the authorities. Even now Pavel's Range
Rover has Russian registration plates on it. Needless to say, his
announcement regarding the Belarusian Orthodox Church's aspirations for
greater autonomy came as a big surprise.

Why the Belarusian Orthodox Church Needs More Rights

Self-governing status within the Moscow Patriarchate should not be
confused with autocephaly and separation from it. The Russian Orthodox
Church has five levels of independence.

First, there is the metropolitan district, like in Kazakhstan, which
lacks any rights to make its own decisions. Second, there is an
exarchate, which brings together a large number of dioceses, but has no
power. Belarus is an exarchate. Third, there are self-governing churches
like in Estonia or Latvia. Pavel wants to upgrade the Belarusian
Orthodox Сhurch to this level.

Currently any talks about the fourth and fifth levels which are close
to having autocephalous status ,and which the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
and the Orthodox Church of Japan have, remain impossible at this time.According to the Metropolitan, “it hurts” that the Belarusian
Orthodox Сhurch remains at such a low level.

Today decisions of the
Synod of the Belarusian Orthodox Сhurch, even technical ones, cannot
come into force before the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church and the
Patriarch in Moscow considers them. Belarusian priest Alexander Shramko
has said that this demonstrates “total distrust”.

As a result, the Belarusian Orthodox Church remains sluggish and is gradually losing Belarus.
120 thousand Orthodox believers and 58 thousand Catholics attended
religious services on Christmas, there are seven times more Orthodox
christians than Catholics in Belarus.